The Countdown Begins

---

Today (11/11 ) seems to be a fitting day to begin blogging our next adventure - it is now 11 sleeps until we leave. No. 1 daughter is very excited and No. 2 is heading that way but until her last VCE exam is over, the holiday is still far from her mind. Remembrance Day always makes me think of my grandfather and this trip is very much about him as we will be touring the WW1 battlefields of France and Belgium where he served. This first entry of our travels is also a bit of a "test-run" to make sure that those of you who subscribed last time still have access to our travelblog page.
OK - if you want follow our movements on a map, here is a brief run down of where we will be and what we hope to see. We are flying Etihad airlines and fly to Paris via a 2 hour stopover at Abu Dhabi ( UAE ). When we arrive in Paris we will be staying in an apartment in the Republique/Parmentier area for 7 days. We have a 4 day museum pass and have a big list of things we want to see in those 4 days- of course the Louvre is on top of that list. We have a night tour booked that takes in dinner at the Eiffel Tower, a river cruise on the Seine and the show at Moulin Rouge. Then we plan to cram in as many sights as we can - Notre Dame, Sacre-Couer, Arc de Triomphe etc etc. We have also just found out that the Eiffel Tower is celebrating it's 120th anniversary and a spectacular light & sound show has been planned for the next 2 months - very cool and well timed.
From Paris we head by train to Brussels,while there we plan to take in Bruges and we are also heading into the Netherlands for a day. Stacey's pen-pal - they have never met and she has been writing to her for the past 13 years lives in Eygelshoven which is about an hour & half drive from Brussels. Her and her father are picking us up and we will be spending the day with her family back in Eygelshoven - she has told us to pack our winter woolies it is very cold. After Brussels we head to Ieper or as it was known during WW1 Ypres it is also in Belgium and where we will be based for our battlefield tours. We have 2 days of tours - one in and around Ypres taking in all the Australian memorials and the areas my grandfather fought in. The next day we plan to explore the town of Ypres which has strong ties to Australia ( but more on that later in the trip ). Then we will head into the Somme region and lay a wreath at the resting place of my Great Uncle in a small Commonwealth War cemetery in Warloy-Baillion, explore some other WW1 sites there and then visit Fromelles. I'm sure all this will be a very emotional time. While in Belgium we will also celebrate St Nicholas day which should be fun. We leave Ypres and head back to Brussels before flying home via Abu Dhabi - this time though we will stop-over and take a few days to explore this part of the world and thaw out before heading back to this heat. So all I have left to do now is pack - bit hard to think coats and beanies in this weather, got to do a little money exchange - not too bad at the moment 0.62Euro = 1AUD and check the cameras we are taking are in tip top condition 😉 Any takers for guessing how many photos will be taken this trip or how many Storybooks we may need to produce ??!!

---